


The Advisor

by CherryMilkshake



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, M/M, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 02:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3102569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherryMilkshake/pseuds/CherryMilkshake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobleman Eridan is newly engaged to Heiress to the Empire Feferi, but she has no patience for him. Eridan turns to his new Empress-appointed advisor for a sympathetic ear. Instead he gets no-nonsense advice and the beginning of a real friendship. But will Eridan’s burgeoning feelings ruin everything?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Advisor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doombell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doombell/gifts).



> Prompt: Main OTP of mine is Erikar! But I love them all… // I'm a sucker for both fluff and angst. I'm pretty much fascinated with stories about royalty, one-sided relationships, fantasy and arranged marriages.
> 
> I hope this fulfills your expectations!

“You need to leave now, Eridan.” The door clicks shut in your face.

You groan and rub at your temples. You’ve only been engaged for two weeks, how is it that she already hates you?

You return to your quarters and flop onto the chaise longue in the sitting room, trying to kick off your boots without having to move anything north of your hips.

Since the boots are knee high and quite tight, you are not successful in the least.

You feel a tug on your foot and the boot slides off. You look down your chest and between your knees and see your new Empress-assigned advisor, Karkat Vantas. He’s an interesting fellow. Sort of a permanently grumpy expression, and not much to look upon, but you were doubly assured of his intelligence. “I guess today went about as well as yesterday?” he says, removing the second boot.

You groan again. “I just wish I knew what I was doin’ so wrong,” you lament. “I’m a friendly guy, polite. And I always make sure I look and smell nice when I go and see her. Why doesn’t she like me?”

Karkat raises a thick, black eyebrow. “Do you really think being polite and clean is enough to make a woman like you?”

“Well, I’m an attractive man and I’m of good stock, so… yeah?”

Karkat appears to be speechless. Then, he pinches the bridge of his nose between two broad fingers. “Do you not actually have any friends?”

You sit up indignantly. “I’ll have you know I have plenty a friends!”

“Oh yeah? Then tell me, why do you like them? Because they’re attractive and of the right background?”

You think of your various acquaintances. “Yes…?”

Karkat shakes his head. “You fool, if that’s all you both see in each other, you’re not actually friends. Friendship is about compatible personalities, shared hobbies, similar passions—you know, actual conversation fodder. Are you even interested in Princess Feferi, or just in the appearance of the two of you getting along so her mother doesn’t call the whole thing off and make you the shame of your already shameful family?”

You stand up, looming over him. Karkat Vantas is a short, dark-skinned little man with a squashed nose and too-big ears who comes from a family of minor knights. What right has he to say such things about your noble family?! “Of course I’m interested in her! Otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed to the engagement!”

Karkat refuses to be intimidated. “So why is that you just so _happened_ to be engaged right after your elder brother decided to become the laughingstock of the court when he declared himself no longer noble and ran off to become a wandering minstrel?”

“Don’t you say anything about my brother,” you growl.

“Or what?” Karkat sneers. “You’ll fire me? I’m one of the Empress’s favorites. She wouldn’t see it as a flaw in me, she’d see it as a flaw in you. Like it or not, you can’t touch me.”

“And how in the world did a nasty little man like you become a favorite a the Empress?”

He grins, vicious and nasty. “Personality. Which is something you need a severe improvement in.”

You realize something. “You’re here to scare me outta this engagement, aren’t you? That’s why she assigned you here. You’re not an ‘advisor’, you’re… you’re…” You have no idea what word to use, crap.  “S-someone paid to intimidate me!”

Karkat is not impressed by your (admittedly terrible) insult. “Even if I am, I haven’t even done anything. You got her to hate you all by yourself.”

You grunt and sit back on the couch, resting your head on your palms. “Fine then,” you grumble. “What would you _advise_ me to do, oh great advisor?”

“Alright then, first of all, you need to stop treating her like a princess and start treating her like a person. Ask her opinion of things and actually listen to the answer. Take an interest in the things she likes and does. Only talk about yourself when she asks.” He pauses. “Are you taking notes?”

“I-in my head, yeah!” You weren’t expecting him to actually give you useful advice.

He says a few more things, then excuses himself to attend a meeting. Once he’s gone, you pull out your personal notebook—a lovely little thing handbound in black leather—and write down what he told you. You didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing you do it.

\--

Karkat’s advice was spot-on. It’s barely been a week, and the princess has already warmed up to you significantly. The problem is, the closer you and her get, the more you think about Karkat.

It’s kind of a mind-blowing experience, him taking care of you. And that’s what it is really, more than advising. He makes sure you sleep and eat properly, and even listens to your bitching about, well, just about everything because nobody in the damn castle can do anything right.

And while he always puts an angry face on what he’s saying, he’s rarely wrong about what you should say or do about the problems. He tells you who to complain to about getting your sheets washed properly. He tells you how to get and stay on good terms with the Empress’ consort, even though the unhinged man makes you supremely uncomfortable. He tells you how to how best to dodge rude questions about your brother without getting riled up. Bonus: if you play your cards right, sometimes you can reveal the other person as being the asshole they really are.

So even though you and Princess Feferi are now getting along swimmingly, your thoughts are a bit distracted.

The worst thing is that you start to notice little things about Karkat. While he’s not traditionally handsome in any sense, the more you get to know him, the more you find yourself entranced by his expressions.

He’s possibly the most animated person you’ve ever seen. Every emotion burns on his face. Sure, it’s mostly anger, but you’ve come to realize his anger has _nuance_. You find yourself hoping to see his “compassionate anger”—anger and frustration that came from a place of wanting to improve your life.

It had been irritating before you understood what it was, but now that you did, you were almost fond of it. It was proof that someone cared about you, you-the-person, not you-the-bratty-noble.

That fondness is growing at a rapid rate, you realize, watching him write letters at his desk in the little alcove of the sitting room that he uses as an office. You watch his teeth worry at his chapped lower lip thoughtfully, admire how long his eyelashes are, almost completely covering his dark eyes as he looks down at the paper.

It’s a startling realization that hits you. You want to kiss him.

You want very _badly_ to kiss him.

You want to grab hold of his thick curly hair and use it to turn his head just right so that you can devour him. You want to know what kind of sounds he would make.

You lick your lips unconsciously as you continue to watch him.

And because you are a man of action you say, “Hey, Kar.”

He hates the nickname. It only makes you use it more.

“What is it?” he asks, not looking up from his papers.

“You’ve given me so much advice about handlin’ the princess, but you’ve never told me about your own love life.”

Karkat snorts. “That was intentional, believe me.”

You gasp theatrically. “Why, Kar, are you tellin’ me you can’t get a date?”

He looks at you, his eyes a piercing glare. “I can get dates just fine, thanks.” He frowns though. “Just not with the person I want,” he finishes in a small voice.

Your heart pounds. “Why not? They of noble birth or somethin’?” You hope and pray for a yes. What if he’s talking about you?

“No.”

The answer deflates you like a punctured balloon. “Oh,” you choke out. “Then why?”

“I fucked up my relationship with her,” he continues in a mumble. “There’s no going back.” He blinks. “Fuck! I mean… Argh, shit. Sorry, I’m not supposed to curse in front of people I work for. It’s a bad habit. Forgive me.”

“Nothin’ to forgive, Kar. I don’t mind.” You feel sort of hollow, like instead of your heart hurting, someone just reached in and took it out, leaving a gaping hole that you just can’t help prodding at. “So there’s no one else you’d like to, y’know, get together with?”

“Not really. Why do you care anyway? Trying to set me up with someone?”

You try to laugh to cover up the weird feeling in your chest. “Uh, yeah! Haha, you caught me.”

“Good. I don’t want you anywhere _near_ my romantic life. You can continue to suck at your own, thank you.”

“Haha, yeah, I know.” Crap, is your voice wobbling? Keep it together, Eridan. “I’m not feelin’ too well, so I’m gonna go take a nap.”

“Sure, just be up before sundown. You have supper in the princess’ private chambers tonight.”

“Yeah, I will. Thanks.”

He hums an acknowledgement, back to biting his lip as he works. He wasn’t even looking at you for most of that conversation.

You close the door to your bedroom and slowly slide down the length of it, wincing as your tailbone hits the floor.

You tell yourself it’s not a rejection. That it was just him talking about himself.

But you just can’t seem to explain that to the tears running down your face.

You had never felt _cared for_ before Karkat, not really. Your brother was always rebelling in strange ways and stealing all the attention from your parents and peers. You were simply the Other Son, the normal one, who did everything that was expected of you. But even when you did it well, even perfectly, no one had noticed.

Karkat had noticed. Karkat had tried to make you _better_.

You sniffle and drag yourself over to your bed, flopping onto it facedown.

You know you can’t wallow long. You have a princess to woo after all.

\--

After the wedding, Karkat is assigned to someone else, probably another person the Empress wants to keep an eye on. You smile when you see him around the palace, and for a while, he acknowledges you in return. But as months go by, that stops too.

You see him in the garden one day, sitting with one of the palace seers, the red cloth over her eyes a sign of her status. Their hands are tangled together in his lap, and he seems to be describing the spring flowers. His expression—usually harsh, even in repose—is soft, a smile playing on his lips.

You wonder if that is the woman he mentioned to you. Anger overtakes you and before you know that, you’re marching over there, trying to school your expression.

Karkat, though, he sees the cracks in your facade. “Lord Eridan, how can I help you?” he asks, eyes narrowing in suspicion as they look up at you.

“Is this the woman you mentioned to me?” you ask, speaking through a mantra of _calm, calm, calm, must be calm_.

Karkat frowns. “And if she is?”

“What did you say about me, Karkat?” the woman cuts in, drawing her lips back in a grin. “Only good things I hope.”

“He said he was a real fuck up when it came to you,” you say viciously.

Before Karkat can respond, she laughs, wildly, so that you can count every tooth in her wide mouth. “It’s not a lie,” she says when she’s finished.

Karkat pouts—actually pouts; you die a little inside. “And what’s it to you?” he grumbles at you. “Here to confess your undying love?”

Your heart stops.

His expression shifts into one of shock. “Holy shit, you _are_.”

“N-no!” you _squeak_ , oh God in Heaven kill you now.

Karkat is holding his head with one hand, looking upright horrified. “I should have seen this coming,” he mumbles to himself. “Look, Lord Eridan, I’m sorry but—”

You cut him off. “I would rather not hear your rejection speech, thanks. I’m sure it’s a real nice piece a work, but I think I just want to walk away now.”

The look of pity hurts worse than the rejection. “Of course.”

You spend the night curled up in Fef’s lap as she reads and absently strokes your hair. She’d asked you what happened, but you don’t even want to think about that humiliating scene anymore.

At least you told him. Sorta. That counts for character, right?

You consider yourself a pretty stubborn guy when it comes to romantic endeavors, but even you know that it’s time to let Karkat Vantas go.

You don’t think he’d ever look at you like that.

Fef’s hands are gentle as they brush over your ear and you focus only on that. And when tears leak from your closed eyes, she doesn’t say a word.  


End file.
